ORDER
Cyclophyllidea
FAMILY
Davaineidae
TAXONOMY
Taenia proglottina Davaine, 1860, France.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
None known.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Body 0.02–0.04 in (0.5–1.0 mm) (sometimes up to 0.12 in [3 mm]) long. Scolex with four suckers armed with spines and rostellum armed with 60–90 hammer-shaped rostellar hooks. Proglottides, five to nine, usually six in number.
DISTRIBUTION
Cosmopolitan.
HABITAT
Adults in intestines of poultry. Larvae in the body cavity of slugs. This parasite is very common in farms in humid areas where slugs are abundant.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Internal parasite absorbing nutrients through the tegument.
BEHAVIOR
Nothing is known.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Each adult parasite produces one gravid proglottis per day, which is released with feces of the final host. Slugs, which are often coprophagous, eat gravid proglottides. The development of the larva (named cysticercoid) continues in the body cavity of the mollusk for 15–22 days (depending on temperature regime). Hens are infested as a result of eating infected slugs. Worms mature in the intestine of the final host for 12–16 days.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not listed by the IUCN.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Davainea proglottina causes a parasitic disease of poultry. Its pathogenesis is mostly connected with an inflammation of the duodenum. Its acute phase continues three to five days. The mortality can reach up to 60%.
